Commonwealth

Lord Kakkar Excerpts

Thursday 17th October 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Kakkar (CB)]

My Lords, I, too, join other noble Lords in thanking my noble friend Lord Luce for having secured this important debate and, in so doing, declare my own interest in the register with regard to healthcare but particularly as a serving officer of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Global Health and the UK business ambassador for healthcare and life sciences.

We have heard that the Commonwealth is uniquely diverse in geography, ethnicity and stages of economic development. That represents an important challenge in terms of the delivery of universal healthcare, an objective which must be attuned ideally with the objectives or one of the themes of this year’s Heads of Government meeting, with growth and equality defined in terms of equality of development.

It is clear that the 54 current member states of the Commonwealth are diverse also in access to healthcare, the burden of disease that the populations of those nations experience and the outcomes. It is quite striking, for instance, that although 40% of the world’s population lives in Commonwealth nations, the Commonwealth carries 60% of the burden of HIV and AIDS.

In terms of access to healthcare, there is a 300-fold difference between Malta and Tanzania, for instance, in the figure for doctors per 100,000 of population. In terms of outcomes, a woman is 300 times more likely to die from complications during childbirth in Sierra Leone than in Singapore. There is therefore much to do. Focusing on the delivery of healthcare is an important opportunity for the Commonwealth to demonstrate to each individual citizen the real benefits of being part of an organisation and entity as diverse as the Commonwealth.

A focus on healthcare, in terms of education, innovation, research and the delivery of high-quality care, is nothing new for Commonwealth nations; indeed, throughout its 64-year history there have been important exchanges of medical practitioners and other healthcare professionals between Commonwealth countries. So many citizens, doctors and nurses of Commonwealth countries have come to serve in our own NHS and have returned to their own home countries, having learnt much and applied it, and taken on leadership roles to develop healthcare in those nations. Our own practitioners and doctors have gone to other Commonwealth countries and been able to learn much and bring it back to improve the delivery of healthcare in our own country.

How do we take these opportunities forward? How do we ensure that, with modern technology, and a focus on high-quality education, innovation and reverse innovation, healthcare is better for all Commonwealth citizens? I had the privilege of addressing the Health Ministers of the Commonwealth earlier this year at their annual meeting and was able to propose the creation of something known as Common Health—a hub for exchange of educational materials, best innovative practice and life-saving information, made available at the fingertips of every healthcare practitioner across the Commonwealth through modern communications technology. If this initiative were able to go forward—indeed, it was endorsed to do so—it would provide an opportunity to ensure that everything that we have learnt and that has been validated in each Commonwealth country, having been shared among the learned societies and professional organisations for healthcare practitioners in those countries, could be shared broadly across a community of practitioners, numbering possibly some 2 million doctors and some 15 million other healthcare professionals. That would be unique and it could provide the opportunity to change in a material way the lives of every Commonwealth citizen. Will Her Majesty’s Government’s consider such initiatives, focusing on the provision of improved healthcare, as an important objective of our contribution to the activities and work of the Commonwealth?